Your Heartbeat Paints A Picture

Like a form of electronic abstract expressionism, Sinae Kim’s heartbeat drawings strive to capture raw human emotion in form and color. What looks like a kindergartener’s scribble is actually an electronic sketch, or rather, an abstracted depiction of a person’s heartbeat. Rendered through the application of an Ezio board, Processing, and a heartbeat sensor, these drawings demonstrate Kim’s attempt to materialize pure emotion onto canvas. The rhythm, pulse, and rate of the heartbeat direct the color and character of its depiction.

And so it makes sense that if a person’s heart is beating more rapidly or their body temperature rises, the drawing exudes warmer colors. If the heartbeat is slow, cooler colors like blue and purple surface. Going further, Kim goes on to compare these color assorted cardiac caricatures to psychological associations of personality. As warm hues signal more aggressive, extroverted types, cooler colors relate to a calm and sensitive character.